


Sleeping Arrangements

by Persiflager



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Coital Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 04:13:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2296220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflager/pseuds/Persiflager
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We didn’t fuck,” said Rodney from underneath the Ancient console he was taking to pieces. “Pass me the big spanner.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping Arrangements

When a mission involved spending the night off-world, John shared a room with Teyla and made Rodney and Ronon bunk together.

It made practical sense, pairing the weakest member of the team with the strongest and giving each pair a Pegasus native (to reduce the risk of cultural misunderstandings) and a gene-carrier (in case said cultural misunderstandings happened anyway and they needed to fly back to Atlantis to fetch help). The fact that this meant that John ended up sharing a room with the only member of his team that didn’t snore was, despite Rodney’s extremely vocal protests, pure chance. 

On P7X-894 they met with a friendly-seeming local tribe who were willing to discuss trading for naquadah in exchange for some help fixing their Ancient irrigation equipment. Teyla haggled patiently over dinner while Ronon kept an eye on the door and John kicked Rodney every time he looked like he was about to speak. When they’d concluded, their hosts showed them to two adjoining rooms.

“You know the drill,” said John, as he opened the door. “Sleep tight, kids.” He could hear Rodney and Ronon bickering through the thin wall as he let himself into the room, which contained a variety of ornamental gourds and exactly one small bed.

“Um.”

“Is there a problem?” Teyla dropped her pack on the floor and sat on the bed to unlace her boots.

“Nope,” said John, following her lead. Then he grinned. “Think they’ll survive the night without killing each other?” 

Teyla smiled back politely, the smile which John had labelled number six – ‘actually amused but maintaining the moral high ground’. “I am sure that Rodney and Ronon will be fine.”

There was a yelp from next door, followed by the low rumble of Ronon’s laugh and the sound of Rodney ranting at a rising pitch.

“Oh sure,” said John with a straight face. “Just fine.”

…

John spent the night huddled on the edge of the tiny straw mattress and cursing Teyla’s bony knees and elbows. When the gray light of dawn finally crept in through the window he yawned, rubbed his eyes, pulled his boots on and left Teyla dozing peacefully in the middle of the bed.

“Good morning campers,” said John as he pushed open the door to Rodney and Ronon’s room, “I-”

John stopped still at the sight of Ronon, wide awake, lying on his back in bed with his head up and his blaster pointed straight at John and Rodney snuggled up against him.

“And to think I thought you were a morning person,” said John for the sake of something to say.

Ronon looked at him a moment longer before putting the blaster down and resting his hand casually on Rodney’s back. Rodney snuffled and wriggled a bit before stretching out and rolling over to blink at John.

“Oh hey. Morning, Sheppard.”

“Hey,” said John, trying and failing to sound as relaxed as Rodney.

“Trouble?”

“No, no trouble. Thought we could do with an early start, that’s all.”

Rodney frowned at him and John fled the room.

…

It was late morning by the time John found himself alone with Rodney, standing in the sunshine out at the Ancient outpost where Rodney was attempting to fix the irrigation controls while John stood guard and occasionally pressed buttons. 

They were both adults and both technically civilians so their personal lives weren’t any of his business (although when it inevitably fell apart he was the one who’d have to put his team back together), but hooking up on a mission was completely inappropriate and John was pissed off that they’d put him in the position of having to have a couple of incredibly awkward conversations. 

At least Rodney was unlikely to hit him.

“We didn’t fuck,” said Rodney from underneath the Ancient console he was taking to pieces. “Pass me the big spanner.”

John passed him the spanner. “What?”

“Oh please, I can hear you brooding from down here. We didn’t have sex, does that make you feel better?”

John opted for the plausible deniability of silence. 

“So it turns out that Satedans are big cuddlers,” continued Rodney in a lecturing voice, which was rich considering that Rodney had shown fuck all interest in Ronon’s homeworld up to now. “It’s a totally normal, platonic thing to touch your friends and family a lot, way more than we do. They practically never sleep alone; even in the army they all shared bunks. I think having his own bed in Atlantis has been weirding him out.”

“Huh.” John could feel sweat trickling down his neck. He swatted away a big buzzy thing like a purple bumblebee.

“And is it really so shocking that I might appreciate some, uh, physical affection, albeit of the non-sexual variety? I have needs.” There was a clanking sound under the console which John identified as the sound of Rodney getting frustrated and hitting things really hard. “I miss my cat.”

“He’s not a pet, Rodney.”

“Well no, obviously.” Another clank. “Try it now.”

John pressed the top button and a green light came on. “It works.”

“Sweet. One down, four to go.” Rodney climbed out from under the console and sat up. “So you can stop freaking out,” he said, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. 

“I wasn’t freaking out.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s straight anyway.”

John raised an eyebrow at that.

“Pass me the mallet,” said Rodney, lying back down and scooting backwards. “I’m going in.”

John passed him the mallet and sat replaying the conversation in his head. “Huh,” he said quietly to himself, and he took a swig of cool water from his canteen.

…

John had assumed that things would go back to normal when they were back on Atlantis. They did, until the next team movie night when Rodney climbed into Ronon’s lap and John spilled the popcorn all over the floor.

The weird thing was that, apart from all the touching (which didn’t happen if anyone other than John or Teyla was around), they were exactly the same. They talked to each other in the same tones of condescension and barely concealed aggression; John still couldn’t tell if they even liked each other all that much.

They seemed happy though, especially Ronon, so John tried really hard not to be a dick about it.

…

John spent more time with Teyla, who had reassuringly solid boundaries when it came to physical intimacy.

“So you don’t think it’s weird?” he asked as they stretched one morning before working out. He sat two feet away from her on the floor - a perfectly normal, polite distance.

Teyla bent one arm behind her back and pushed her elbow down. “I did not say that. I believe that it is a positive thing, for both of them, but I certainly was … surprised.”

“See! It’s weird.” 

Teyla gave him an amused version of polite smile number four, the one that I said ‘I might agree with you but no power in the galaxy will ever get me to admit it out loud’.

“Do you think McKay wasn’t hugged enough as a child?”

Teyla flashed another number four at him and rose fluidly to her feet, bantos sticks in hand. 

John sighed and stood up so that Teyla could enjoy knocking him down again.

…

One morning John woke up before his alarm and decided to meet Ronon at his quarters for their run.

Ronon let him in without saying a word and got dressed, leaving John to avert his gaze which fell inevitably on the sleeping form of Rodney in Ronon’s bed.

“Huh.”

“Is it a problem?” asked Ronon, sounding cautious.

“Uh, no. So McKay sleeps here now?”

“Sometimes.” The faint whistling sound of Rodney snoring filled the room.

“Well, good,” said John, ignoring the hot, tight feeling in his chest, like he was winded before they'd even started. “That’s … good. Let’s run.”

…

John wasn’t sure which he found harder to believe – that Ronon and Rodney were fucking each other, or that they really were just sleeping together. But it really wasn’t any of his business now that they weren’t on a mission so he did the sensible, mature thing and steered clear of them all day.

…

Rodney marched into John’s quarters that evening and scowled at him. “You’re an ass.”

“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Ass to you,” said John, turning the page of his magazine. Ooh, putter reviews.

Rodney plunked himself down in the chair beside the bed. “You’ve upset him. Now he thinks he’s broken some great cultural taboo and offended you and he won’t believe when I explain that you’re just wildly repressed. If my rapidly rising blood pressure causes me to have a stroke and die, history will blame you.”

John set the magazine down on his stomach. “He told you he was upset? And for the record, I didn’t say anything.”

“It was more of a non-verbal communication of upset-ness - I know you’re familiar with that method of communicating feelings, because it’s the only one I’ve ever seen you use. And, for the record, he’s not an idiot. He can read between the lines.”

“You call him an idiot all the time. You said yesterday that he could only aspire to Cro-Magnon levels of idiocy.”

“Yes, but I say that about you as well.”

John glared at Rodney.

“Look,” said Rodney, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “I explained about your issues, nobody’s going to try and hug you or whatever. What’s your problem with this?”

John could feel a headache coming on. It was a very specific headache that came on whenever he had to resist a perfectly reasonable urge to punch Rodney in the face. “My what?”

“You know.” Rodney waved one hand in a complex gesture that encompassed John, his bedside lamp and half the known universe. “Your intimacy issues, Colonel Hands Off. The way you make like a rock whenever someone touches you.”

John took a deep breath, counted to five, and slowly released it. “I don’t have intimacy issues,” he said through gritted teeth.

Rodney snorted. “Oh please, you-”

John leaned over, grabbed the front of Rodney’s shirt and yanked him forward into a hard kiss.

“Huh,” said Rodney, staring at John. “That’s-”

John yanked again, rolling as he did so that Rodney landed on top of him on the bed. “Who’s hands off now?” 

“Well-” Rodney pushed himself up on his hands, forearms either side of John’s chest, but John knocked him back down with a couple of well-placed elbows. “ _Oh_.”

Rodney _finally_ got with the program, lying on John with his full weight so that John was pinned down underneath him and kissing him noisily. He was solid and warm and John finally felt that hot, tight feeling in his chest melt away until he felt as light as a balloon, as if he’d float away if Rodney wasn’t there to hold him down.

Rodney kissed like he talked, with his mouth constantly moving and never letting anyone else get a word in edgeways. He seemed determined to press his lips against every bit of John’s skin he could reach, with cheerful disregard for whether it was traditionally considered an erogenous zone or not. So John’s cheekbones got the same lavish attention as his ears, and his entire neck got mapped by Rodney’s tongue. It was messy and hot and kinda weird, and John was just about to suggest that Rodney was welcome to explore the much more interesting areas below his collarbone when Rodney sucked just below his jaw and John’s cock went from ‘interested’ to ‘rock hard and desperate’ so fast that it made him dizzy.

“Ngh,” he managed.

Rodney made a pleased humming sound. “So do you, uh, wanna fuck?”

John gasped a little and kicked his heels against the mattress. “Please.”

“Any preferences? Because I’m, well, easy is probably the right word. I’d like to blow you, I like that, or if you want to fuck me that would be fine, more than fine actually, or-”

“Me,” said John, digging his fingers into Rodney’s side. “You do me.”

Rodney groaned loudly in John’s ear. “Oh god that’s hot. Ask me again. Can you beg? Because begging would be-”

John frowned and smacked Rodney lightly on the back of his head.

“Ok, fine, Colonel Spoilsport,” said Rodney crossly as he scrambled off John and stood beside the bed. He looked a mess, with his clothes rumpled and his hair sticking up every which way and his face red and shiny, and John had never wanted anyone so much in his whole life. “Is it too much to hope that you’ve got-”

“Bedside drawer,” said John with a jerk of his head before pulling his t-shirt over his head and starting work on his pants, hands clumsy with impatience. Lying there on his own made him feel unsettled and prickly. When he was naked he looked up to see Rodney climbing out of his pants and underwear with a look of triumph on his face.

“Hi,” said Rodney, bouncing onto the bed to lie beside John with a grin on his face. “I have lube.” 

He waggled the bottle in John’s face and John closed his eyes for a moment to contemplate the ludicrousness of the fact that he was going to have sex with this moron. “So I see,” he said, opening his eyes and swinging one leg over Rodney’s hip. “And are you going to do anything useful with it?”

Rodney‘s grin grew even broader, reaching record-breaking levels of smugness, and oh, oh, oh, Rodney’s hands were geniuses too. Five minutes later John was squirming on three fat fingers and entirely willing to beg.

“How do you want it?” Rodney murmured against his ear, his breath hot and damp.

Anyway he could get it. “Don’t mind,” panted John, waving goodbye to his dignity without a single pang of regret.

“Ok.” Rodney pressed a kiss to the corner of John’s eye and slowly withdrew his fingers. “Ssh,” he said to John’s whine of protest. “Turn over.”

John rolled over onto his stomach and slid his hands under the pillow, clutching it tight.

The bed creaked as Rodney shifted behind him and he could hear the crinkle of a condom packet. Rodney leaned forward and tugged the pillow out from John’s hands.

“Trust me,” he said. “Lift.”

John lifted his hips just enough for Rodney to slide the pillow underneath. He focused on Rodney’s hands, feeling them stroke up and down the back of his thighs and squeeze his ass.

“Any time now, McKay.”

“Well, excuse me for admiring your ass.” Rodney gave him another squeeze. “It’s great by the way, really very nice.”

“Not as nice as yours,” mumbled John.

“Really? Well, that’s very-”

“ _Rod_ ney.”

“Yes, yes, fine.” Rodney gripped John’s hip with one hand and pressed his cock against John’s asshole with the other. “Let me know if-”

John took a deep breath, relaxed, and felt Rodney’s cock slide smoothly inside.

“Oh fuck,” whispered Rodney. He leaned forward, pressing against John’s back, and slid the rest of the way in. “Holy fuck.”

John felt utterly blissful, stuffed full and pinned between the mattress and Rodney. He stretched his arms out in front of him and gripped the smooth base sections of his carved headboard, then rocked his hips up.

“Oh _Christ_.” Rodney sounded utterly wretched. He plastered himself closer against John and braced himself on his elbows either side of John’s shoulders. “ _John_.”

“Come on, Rodney,” drawled John, letting a touch of whine creep in.

Rodney took a deep breath and started fucking John in short, sweet jabs, pulling out just a little way before thrusting quickly back in hard enough to make fireworks go off behind John’s eyelids. Rodney pushed him higher and higher, cranking round the Ferris wheel until he was nearly, so nearly at the top.

“Can you come like this?” panted Rodney without stopping. “Because I’m close.”

John thought about it, considered the slow drag of pleasure from Rodney’s cock hitting away at his prostate and the sharper sparks of his cock rubbing against the pillow. “Nah. Pull me back.”

Rodney stopped and did so, pulling at John’s hips with bossy, frantic hands. “Like that?”

“Further,” said John, sitting up. “So I can - yeah, fuck.” And he sat on Rodney’s lap and rode his big, beautiful dick, with Rodney’s arms tight around him and Rodney’s face buried in his neck and his own hand flying on his cock until he came with a grunt and a shiver of ecstasy that shook him inside and out.

“Oh god oh god oh god,” muttered Rodney against his neck. “Please can I, _please_ -”

“Sure,” said John muzzily, his brain slow and sticky with pleasure. “Whatever you like.”

Rodney made a sharp, odd hiccup of sound and pushed John back down onto his front and fucked him hard and fast, and just as it was too much Rodney thrust in deep and came with a shudder.

“Oh,” Rodney rested his forehead between John’s shoulder-blades. “Oh, that was-”

“Yeah.” John stretched slowly, savoring the deep, contented ache in his muscles. His back was damp with sweat and the pillow under his stomach felt gross. “You ok there, buddy?” He reached back and patted Rodney’s leg.

Rodney took a deep breath. “Yes. Let me just-” As he pushed himself up, his softening cock slipped out of John’s ass. “Ah, sorry.”

John shrugged. As Rodney climbed off the bed and dealt with the condom, John sat up. He turned the pillow skanky-side down, put it back at the top of the bed, lay back down, folded his arms under his head and watched as Rodney disappeared into the bathroom. He listened to the sounds of splashing and running water. His skin prickled a little as it cooled and his mind felt clear and still. As he sprawled naked on the bed, with his legs bent and everything on display, he wondered if he looked as well-fucked as he felt. He wanted to preserve this feeling, to hammer it thin and wear it against his skin so that nobody could see.

After a couple of minutes Rodney emerged and stared at John, and John realised that this was the first time he’d ever had sex with someone who already knew the stories behind all his scars.

“Here.” Rodney threw a damp washcloth at John, which John caught and used to swipe reluctantly over his stomach and between his legs. When he’d finished, he dropped the cloth on the floor and looked up to see Rodney pulling his boxer shorts on.

“I should go,” said Rodney, staring at the floor.

“Ok.”

“I should, right?”

John watched Rodney fiddle with his t-shirt. “You can stay if you like.

“Really?” Rodney’s face lit up with pleased surprise. “Cool.” He pulled his t-shirt on and climbed up the bed to lie next to John, pulling the covers up with him. “I can be discreet,” he said. “I know I’m not great at lying but as long as no-one asks me ‘hey, are you fucking John Sheppard?’ then I can keep a secret.”

John looked at Rodney’s big face, shining with earnestness, and felt his chest tighten. “Sure you can.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, nobody noticed you and Ronon.”

“True, I-“ Rodney stopped and stared right at John. “You were jealous.”

John rolled his eyes. “Goodnight, Rodney,” he said, waving off the light and turning onto his side.

“Seriously? I mean that’s tremendously flattering, and you must know that I, well.”

John closed his eyes and breathed slowly. Rodney shuffled up close behind him and wrapped his arm hesitantly around John’s waist. When John didn’t protest that, Rodney nudged his knees up behind John’s.

“I mean it, you know.” Rodney’s voice was hushed in the dark. “And not just because I have a vested interest in you keeping your position.”

John snickered.

“Oh, for-“

John twisted round and kissed Rodney by touch and guesswork, hitting his open mouth off-centre. He wrapped one hand round the back of Rodney’s neck, stroking the fine hairs there, and kissed him softly until Rodney was quiet and still.

“You can sneak out in the morning,” he whispered.

“Ok.” 

John felt the word as a little puff of warm air against his lips. He twisted back round and fell asleep smiling.

…

John wasn’t smiling in the morning when Rodney’s alarm woke him up at ass-crack o’clock and his left arm was completely numb.

“Sorry!” Rodney scrambled into his clothes while John tried to massage the feeling back into his arm. “So I’ll, um, see you at breakfast?”

John glared and waved Rodney out the door before collapsing back onto the bed and trying to get back to sleep. He’d just managed to doze off when Ronon knocked on the door.

“Hey buddy,” said John, stifling a yawn, when he’d finally managed to throw on some clothes.

Ronon nodded in acknowledgment, turned and started jogging away. 

They ran in silence in the early morning light, passing bright-eyed early risers and a few night owls shuffling to bed. John’s muscles complained and eased and stretched out until he finally felt wide awake and present in his body. 

They finally came to a halt on one of the balconies on the east side that had a great view of the sun rise. John put his hands on his thighs and heaved in great gulping breaths of salt air while Ronon calmly leaned against the railing and looked out over the ocean.

“Hey,” said John, when he’d got his breath back, then he realised that he didn’t know what to say next. Sorry for stealing your snuggle buddy? Sorry I thought you were banging McKay? By the way, I did bang McKay but please don’t tell anyone and does he always give off that much heat when he sleeps because jesus, it’s like being spooned by a space heater?

“Do you want a hug?” 

“A hug.” Ronon looked at John as if he’d grown a second head.

“Yeah,” said John, feeling stupid. Then he decided to go for broke and held his arms out in invitation and after a moment’s more staring Ronon grinned and swept him up in a massive bear hug that actually – oh, ok, now John couldn’t touch the floor.

Ronon dropped John back down and smacked him on the back. “I’m glad you got laid,” he said, eyes crinkling.

John stiffened. “That’s-“

“I won’t tell anyone.”

John exhaled. “Good.” He felt suddenly light, as if he could blow away on the breeze. “I’m glad I got laid too.”

Ronon blinked at him. “Ok.”

John felt emptied of words, as if everything that needed to be said had been said. He wondered if that was how Ronon felt all the time. “Head back?”

“Ok.”

They jogged slowly back into the city, along the corridors, back to their respective quarters where they would shower and then go and get breakfast. Rodney would join them there and completely fail at being discreet, especially when John nudged his foot under the table, and Ronon would laugh at them both, and John thought there was a really good chance that Teyla might break out a brand new smile.


End file.
